CREENCIAS SOCIALES Y ORIENTACIONES EMOCIONALES COLECTIVAS SOBRE LA PROTESTA SOCIAL EN CIUDADANOS DE MEDELLÍN (COLOMBIA) Y SU ÁREA METROPOLITANA.

This research tries to comprehend the societal beliefs and the collective emotions about the social protest in the context of peacebuilding. It was used a qualitative methodology with hermeneutical approach, and it was made an analysis of content about what was said in the semi-structured interviews of 18 participants that were classified in three groups according to their position about the social protest: a group in favor, a group against it, and a third one with an ambivalent position. As a result, there were contrasted the positive societal beliefs and the collective as empathy, understanding against prejudices and stigmata. There were emerged beliefs about the "other" as an opponent and enemy, expressions of social distance between groups, discrimination, exclusion, and hate. The mass media were identified as configuration mechanisms of these societal beliefs and collective emotions, associated to rejection of social movements that feeds the political polarization and reduces the possibility to recognize the other as a human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]